An independently owned community pharmacy in Newport is permanently shutting its doors.
Newport Drug Center, located at 39 W. 10th St., is closing on May 5, according to a Facebook post on the business’s page. Additionally, all outstanding prescriptions and refills are being transferred to the pharmacy inside the Newport Kroger.
The post cited Pharmacy Benefit Managers and insurance companies as primary factors for the decision to close.
“The PBMs and insurance companies have won and beat another small independent pharmacy into closing to ensure they continue to make billions of dollars of profit per year,” read the post. “While putting communities like ours without another pharmacy option.”
Newport Drug Center is the latest independently owned pharmacy to shut its doors over the past few years. In 2023, Fort Thomas Drug Center, Ludlow Pharmacy and Alexandria Drugs all closed — each citing exorbitant costs charged by Pharmacy Benefit Managers as a reason.
Bob Crawford, owner and proprietor of Newport Drug Center, told LINK nky his business was just breaking even over the past three to five years.
“The PBMs are just forcing everybody out of business, paying under cost claims and all, and that. We’re just, we’ve been breaking even, probably, for the last three, four or five years, maybe, and now we’re into the red,” Crawford said. “I’ve actually had to hit my credit line, and you can only go so far. They’ve all basically just put us out of business.”
PBMs are third-party companies that act as middlemen between pharmacies, health insurance providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. They occupy a significant role in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry by managing prescription drug benefits for health insurance plans, including Medicare Part D.
PBMs negotiate contracts with pharmacies to establish reimbursement rates and terms for dispensing medications to patients covered by PBM-affiliated insurance plans.
Independent pharmacies, as well as large corporate pharmacy chains, aren’t required to do business with PBMs. Still, many do because of their access to patients served by the aforementioned insurance plans. If independent pharmacies choose not to, they are essentially limiting their customer pool.
In recent years, trade organizations like the National Community Pharmacists Association have criticized Direct and Indirect Remuneration fees charged by PBMs, arguing they are a primary reason for independently owned pharmacies in underserved areas closing.
Crawford lamented that he would no longer be able to provide personal service to the business’s patients and customers. Crawford, himself, decided to retire in the wake of the closure.
“It’s horrible for the patients,” he said. “They just do not have anybody to provide the personal service that we provide I mean, they’re going to go to Kroger’s or Walgreens or wherever they’re going to wind up, and they’re going to be taken care of, but they’re just not going to get the personal service that they get here and they’re accustomed to.”
